


Transplanetary

by asterCrash



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Lesbians in Space, Mystery, Space Opera
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-06
Updated: 2015-11-06
Packaged: 2018-04-30 07:41:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5155718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asterCrash/pseuds/asterCrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captain Rose Graham of the CSV Asima finds herself under a threat she dare not speak of to her crew.</p>
<p>A short original story of personal insecurity and strength, with a backdrop of stars and alien romance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Transplanetary

“Have the refugees provided any new information regarding the attack, Captain?” The ship's strategic officer had a habit of asking too many questions when her captain didn’t have answers.

“I've no desire to interrogate a gaggle of traumatised civilians only a few hours after surviving a raid as brutal as that. The investigation can wait till we're in jump-space.” Meryl's questions were the last thing Rose was worried about right now. Her ship had just taken on four hundred people, most of whom were covered in burns, and a few unlucky souls were suffering severe internal bleeding as a result of the horrific sharp gas bombs the Ultor favoured. Whatever else you could say for Ultorian science, they knew how to make you hurt. Medical supplies were going to be stretched thin, but the real trouble lay with food. The CSV Asima was a dual purpose diplomatic and strike vessel, it had never been intended to cater for a population transplant. Rose winced at the thought that if the Ultor attack had spared even two hundred more her crew might have starved before making their destination.

_The distress signal had come through as soon as the Asima slowed out of jump-space. Even though they had a high priority cargo to deliver, Commonwealth protocol dictated they do a flyby of colonies such as Horus VI. Their remote location prevented regular military patrol so by agreement any passing Commonwealth vessel would make a quick inspection from orbit, there would normally be no landing. A small colony, Horus VI had a population about the ten thousand mark, all stationed in one cramped city. The planet was almost habitable and the colony was working to make it moreso, with terraforming operations turning idle plains into fertile farmland, and balancing out the nitrogen in the air to make it a little more breathable. In ten years you might be able to walk outside without a helmet on a clear day. That was before the attack. As footage filled up the screens in the command centre Rose could see the city below was in ruins._

_The attacking fleet was still present over the city but appeared to have ceased bombing. Though they were less than a dozen small vessels, crews likely no more than ten a piece, they still had enough fire-power to potentially threaten the Asima. The cargo they were carrying only made it more worrying to engage, the minerals they had received from a Torun colony were as yet unstudied. In Rose's experience unstudied usually meant unstable but knowing the risks didn't make it any easier to back away. Captain's discretion ruled in these situations and Rose liked to think she would never turn her back on people in need. She gave the signal to make a landing at the still intact colony port as soon as possible with all unnecessary power diverted to shielding the cargo bay. Thankfully the sight of a descending top-of-the-line Commonwealth interceptor was enough to send the Ultor raiders fleeing back to the skies, little more than pirates that they were. There was a brief exchange of fire between the Asima and the fleet but it was practically a formality. Rose elected to ignore the gunnery chief's disappointed sigh as she headed to the cargo bay to see to the loading of the refugees._

“Captain, are you hearing me? We need a plan in the event of a mutiny. Cramped spaces and empty stomachs have a way of giving people stupid ideas.” Rose was unsure how long she'd zoned out for but Meryl had a way of filling in both sides of the conversation. Rose doubted she was missed.

“This crew is loyal to the Commonwealth and to me. They would never mutiny.”

“Captain, you just let four hundred people on board this ship who we know nothing about. They're scared and pretty soon they're going to be hungry and it won't take long like that for them to stop seeing you as their saviour and start thinking of you as their gaoler. And as for the crew, Captain, they barely know you. I don't think the warp engineer even knows your first name. They see you around the ship but as far as everyone is concerned you might as well be a system away.”

“What would you recommend then, Orccha?” The captain didn't use Meryl's rank unless she was frustrated, the Torun language sounded awkward and clumsy coming from a human throat, even the name Meryl was an approximation Rose had decided on after multiple failed attempts to gargle the correct sounds out.

“Be a leader they can be proud of, make a show of staying strong to keep morale high, but quietly make sure weapons and supplies are locked to only necessary personnel, no one without a commission.” The Torun educated themselves on humans largely through pop culture, Meryl had been surprised that inspiring speeches weren't taught to Terran officers. She'd also privately admitted that she was surprised that more than half of humans were female. There was a misconception among the Torun that humans shared their species' gender imbalance, but in the opposite direction. Only one in ten Torun were male, a fact that military recruiters liked to emphasize when trying to sign up young men for the Commonwealth shared defensive armada. Rose was not fond of the culture this engendered at all, and she'd taken an extremely hard stance against any human member of her crew seen acting inappropriately to a Torun member. The captain herself felt slightly hypocritical on that front however, given how close she had become to her strategic officer since gaining command of the Asima.

Thankfully the first week of their four week jump passed without any significant unrest. Rose had made a public display of forgoing meals in the officers’ mess in favour of eating the ship’s emergency rations. The mixed nutrient paste had no taste beyond some artificial flavouring, but was known to be an unhealthy substitute for solid food over more than a fortnight. A few other officers had joined in her pledge, they held a lottery among the refugees each meal time to determine who would take their place in the officers’ mess. This bought her enough goodwill to weather the first major incident of the trip.

 

* * *

 

Rose had not been in her quarters when the alarms sounded in the middle of a night cycle. Ship lights were raised to full with intermittent orange flashes, the armada code for a fire on board. Hurrying to get dressed Rose sprinted to the command centre. She silently prayed no one would notice that she and the strategic officer arrived together. Fires had broken out in the officer’s mess, the galley and the security centre. Of the three rooms only the security centre had been staffed, Rose watched in horror over the monitors as her crew pulled an unconscious and badly burned officer out of the server room. There was no sign of the other rostered officer. From the reactions she saw play out on screen Rose knew her crew had been too late to save the second staff member.

There was no time to grieve, with the kitchen and all its supplies burning Rose saw the lives of her crew and the refugees alike vanishing into thick black smoke. She fought against the fear clawing inside her. Knowing the fire would take too long to fight conventionally she made the only call she could. Her eyes didn’t leave the monitors as the refrigerator coolant tanks were vented into the kitchen, suffocating it of oxygen. The fire faded and quickly vanished into a cloud of white mist. Her actions saved precious supplies but the cost was steep, until the atmosphere in the kitchen could be readjusted there was no chance of getting to the ship’s rations, and that would take the better part of a day cycle. Nobody on board was getting fed till dinner time. Worse still, with no coolant left the best of their rations would spoil within a few days. The entire ship would be on emergency rations for the rest of their journey, if there was even enough to last that long.

Rose pushed those fears to the back of her mind and focussed on maintaining her cool demeanour. The officers’ mess was a lost cause, sealing the room and letting the fire burn out Rose announced to the command deck that she had neither the resources nor the people to waste on saving some comfortable furniture and a ruined carpet. The Commonwealth would surely spring for a new dining table once they arrived in port and for now there were much more pressing issues.

“Attention crew and passengers of the CSV Asima, this is Captain Graham. At approximately 0130 hours three fires broke out within the ship. These have restricted our access to the galley and as such we will not be able to provide a meal as scheduled at 0800 hours. I ask for your forbearance and understanding during this difficult passage, know that we are doing everything we can to get you to a secure port as quickly and as safely as possible. To that end members of our crew will be inspecting any possessions brought aboard during our relief of Horus VI to ensure there is no further risk of fire within the ship. Captain out.” Rose didn’t give voice to the reason, she wanted to do her best to shield the refugees from a harsh truth. Those fires were clearly strategic and could not have occurred without significant help. They were a declaration of war against her command of this ship, and in all likelihood someone had smuggled incendiary devices into the ship on Horus VI. She couldn’t let the refugees know that there were traitors amongst their number.

 

* * *

 

By the time Rose arrived at the security centre the fires were long out. Every surface of the room was covered in soot and the air filters had not been able to erase the smell of burning hair. Technicians moved between mainframes, trying to find which units had been irreparably damaged and which could yet be salvaged. Rose felt her chest tighten as she watched one of the men step over the covered lifeless body of the only member of her crew to die since she had taken command almost a year ago. The Asima had seen its share of conflict, but until now Rose had been able to lie to herself that she would always be able to get everyone home alive. She dimly realised she would need to write a letter to this person’s family, and yet all she knew of the dead crew member was the name printed on the duty roster and a staff photo that would no longer match the face under that shroud.

Realising she was too short on time for reflection, Rose turned to the head technician. He was doing his best to connect through the damaged terminal, though it was obviously a struggle. “Have you managed to salvage any of the camera footage from before the fires started, corporal?”

As he replied the man maintained his focus on the flickering screen, sorting methodically through directories trying to determine which records were still accessible. “We can recover the footage easily enough, that mainframe doubles as the ship’s black box, it's as indestructible as they come. The problem is encryption. This terminal was the only one on the ship capable of reading those files. Commonwealth protocol prevents the necessary codes being transferred except by an authorised team and even then only in hard copy, never over communication channels.” Rose briefly considered commenting on the arrogance of a corporal explaining to a captain how her ship’s black box and security worked, but let it slide for the sake of expediency. “If I can’t save this terminal we’ll have no way of viewing the footage until we arrive at our destination and I’m sorry to say, Captain, I don’t think I can save this terminal.”

Rose considered for a moment. “Can the encryption be broken without an authorised terminal?”

“Officially, no. If we’re talking off the record, then maybe.If you’re directly ordering me to break just about every Commonwealth law on data security, then sure. Give me a fortnight.”

“You have a week. All non-essential tasks take a backseat to this. The Commonwealth will see that you and your team are compensated well for any overtime taken in the pursuit of this task, as well as a suitable duress payment.”

“This one’s really lit a fire under you Captain, if you’ll pardon the word play” The technician finally turned to face the captain. The technical corps were a bunch of egomaniacs and they took whatever potshots they could at command.

“Get to work, Corporal.”

“Yes ma’am, but before you go, there was some relevant information recovered. The kitchen was locked before the fire started, but our security records indicate it was opened by DNA scan. Were you by any chance feeling peckish around 0100?”

“Corporal, the informality is noted and not appreciated. Spit it out.”

“The DNA scanner records show the only person to access the kitchen after lights out was Captain Rose Graham.”

 

* * *

 

 

Meryl was, as usual, full of questions. It didn’t help matters that she couldn’t simply come forward and say her commanding officer was in her bed at the time of the arson, not without putting both of them in front of their respective peoples’ military tribunals. Transplanetary romances were only barely accepted in common society, but conduct unbecoming of an officer ensured any biases were legally enforceable.

Rose could see how much that helplessness was hurting Meryl but there was so little comfort she could provide. “It’s been four days, if the crew thought I’d intentionally sabotage my own command I’d have been out the airlock long ago. The officers all agree, we picked up a bad seed on Horus VI and until we can figure out who is responsible for-”

The chirping of both women’s comms units brought the conversation to a halt. Looking into each other’s eyes Meryl gave voice to what they already knew.

“A refugee has died.”

 

* * *

 

Rose arrived at the medical bay to find the ship’s doctor standing over the dead refugee. The cadaver was lying on a table in the centre of the room, his face uncovered, completely inexpressive, lifeless. Looking up at the doctor Rose could see from the curve of the deep jade lines set in the Torun’s otherwise grey face that the man was deep in thought. If anyone needed their rest on this ship it was the harrowed doctor. He’d barely slept over the last eleven days, first treating injuries from the attack on Horus VI, then dealing with the increasing flow of malnutritioned refugees and crew members. On a bed in the far corner of the room Rose could see his other charge. The half burned security officer clung to life, but through the last four days of treatment she had only been awake a few hours in total and had yet to provide any information about her attacker.

“What was the cause, doctor?” Rose asked as softly as she was able, half-hoping not to disturb the poor medical officer.

“Unknown, every scan shows he should be perfectly healthy. It’s as if half his organs just switched themselves off. The refugees didn’t even notice he’d died for an hour or so because he’d been sitting perfectly still the entire time. It gets stranger though. While I was trying to find the cause of death the diagnostic recognised a genetic match. This man wasn’t a refugee, he was a Commonwealth officer. Personnel records show he was reported missing in action almost two years ago in a skirmish with the Ultor.”

“A prisoner who escaped?” Or a brainwashed spy, Rose prayed she was wrong.

“My first thoughts as well, but look at his file picture.”

“Winking” Daniel Yarramurrah had earned his nickname the hard way. His service picture showed the ruin of an otherwise handsome face, the burns on his skin had been cleaned up as best as technology could allow, but no amount of surgery had been able to reconstruct the lost cheekbone or repair the fused-shut eye. The man lying on the table however showed no sign of any facial injury, nor any signs of reparative surgery. He didn’t have any scars or piercings and his skin was soft, almost like a child’s.

The captain was thrown from her thoughts by the sound of bedsheets rustling on the other side of the room, the injured security officer had woken up. She followed the doctor over to the small cot as the tall Torun man made a few physical checks on the dazed woman. Rose leaned in to try and provide some comfort to the woman, to tell her she was safe now, but on making eye contact with her captain the officer let out a shriek and recoiled back into the bed. Rose herself staggered backwards as quickly she could, and with a sickening shudder brushed up against the body lying in the centre of the room.

“Captain? Is that you?” the injured officer spoke up from her bed “I’m sorry, you just, I mean he looked, well, it’s not really important” Her stammering was clearly not born of her slept-in confusion.

Trying to collect herself Rose walked back towards the bedside to address the woman “it’s alright, lieutenant, you don’t have to say anything, but anything you can tell us about your attacker will help us find the bastard who hurt you.”

Through the healing burns the young woman’s features twisted with fear. “He’s still out there?” Rose could see she was struggling to decide whether to speak up or not. After a few moments the woman spoke, but she didn’t dare look up at her captain when she did so. “The man who broke into the security centre, Captain, he looked just like you.”

Isolating herself in her cabin Rose did her best to fight back against the deafening memories welling up within her. Memories of a life ended, forgotten. She hoped against hope that she was wrong, that this couldn’t be what she thought it was. She wished more than anything that she could confide in Meryl, but shame kept her mouth shut. There’d been a hundred nights lying next to the green skinned Torun she’d wanted to speak of the pain inside her, but to give it voice was to give it control over her, and in her worst nightmares Rose saw her lover recoiling as the injured woman in the medbay had done. She had decided long ago to bury her pain in the past. And now that truth was a danger to everyone on board this ship.

 

* * *

 

 

The next few days passed without incident, though with each passing night cycle Rose became more and more agitated. With so few staff on board she’d not even been able to count all the refugees during their escape, and trying to organise the milling groups enough to inspect each and every one of them had taken longer than the day cycle allowed. It hadn’t helped that she couldn’t tell her people what she was looking for, eventually she had to abandon the search defeated. The arsonist was still lost somewhere among the crowds in the cargo bay and all Rose could do was shift security patterns and wait for her unseen opponent to make the next move. She walked with a purpose now to the technical team’s makeshift office in the burnt out security centre, knowing this visit would only confirm what she was dreading.

On her arrival the head technician said nothing. He stood to the side and paled as the captain strode to the computer monitor to see the frame he’d paused it on. It seemed in the act of knocking the security officer unconscious the attacker had briefly shown their face to the security camera. Looking into the still of the arsonist Rose could see the face on screen strongly resembled hers, but where her looks were soft and rounded the assailant’s more masculine features were sharp and hollowed out. The eyes that flickered on the monitor were a matching pair to hers but instead of the confidence she saw in her mirror, these held only confusion and pain. She knew those eyes so well.

 

* * *

 

 

With barely a word to the technical team Rose fled back to her quarters, thankful to find the corridors empty along the way. Tears rolled freely down her cheeks the second the door closed behind her. There would be no way to hide this from the crew. She’d never hold their respect again and she would almost certainly lose command after word of this incident got out. Her past was threatening to destroy her future and all through it people were dying. She could see the weariness among the refugees, their health was fading as rations had to be further restricted to last the voyage. They grimly held on to the hope that the captain would bring them through this crisis, how could that hope survive if their captain was compromised? If they saw her desperately hiding her own past and jeopardising their safety in doing so? The tears didn’t stop.

It wasn’t long before Meryl arrived, silently stepping into the cabin and closing the door behind her. Rose tensed in anticipation of the questions that were surely coming. She was surprised to find instead Meryl’s arms wrapping around her. Rose buried herself in that emerald embrace to keep from sobbing. A four fingered hand reached up to stroke her hair as Meryl spoke words of comfort. Rose could barely hear them for all the blood pounding in her ears but one sentence managed to get through to her.  
“It doesn’t matter what this threat is, I’m with you all the way.”

The romantic gesture was cut short as the entire cabin was bathed in blue alert light. Weapons had been discharged onboard. A quick check of her comms unit and Rose knew she was right, the ship’s communications had been cut. It was just what she would do. The PA system sounded to life as a familiar voice addressed the ship.

“Attention crew and passengers of the CSV Asima, this is the real Captain Graham. The woman who has led you up until now is a fraud. Her attempt to kill me and usurp my identity has failed and I will now take my rightful command of this ship. All Asima crew and refugees of the Horus VI colony are hereby ordered to locate the imposter and bring her to the command centre at once. Triple rations will be allocated to whichever man among you delivers her to me. Imposter, I know you’re listening. I want answers. Captain out.”

Rose’s mind raced through the ship considering what must be happening. She’d altered guard rosters to clear a path directly to the command centre to tempt the arsonist out and now it was paying off. Everyone was where she wanted them, none of her people would be there to get in her way.

Whatever that lunatic had said, Commonwealth protocols would keep her crew in line, the same could not be said for the refugees. Cramped spaces and empty stomachs have a way of giving people stupid ideas. All units would converge to quell the refugees, she would have a clean run to the command centre. Checking her pistol securely at her belt she turned to address her first officer.

Meryl spoke before she could, “I’ll make sure the refugees are kept safe. You make a break for the command centre.”

Rose struggled for words, but found them unnecessary as dark green lips locked with hers.

“I love you, Rose. Now go fix that bastard.”

 

* * *

 

 

The captain of the CSV Asima burst into her command centre, weapon raised and ready to fire. Standing in the centre of the room was a familiar man, mirroring her pose with a Commonwealth pistol of his own. He didn’t fire, just like she knew he wouldn’t, just like he knew she wouldn’t.

“I want answers.” Emotions as restrained as hers. “What is wrong with me?” Even if the interloper didn’t know her past, the situation was no less dangerous.

“You’re a murderer, that’s wrong enough for anyone.” With no idea what he was planning Rose could only hope prodding would lead her adversary to--

“You know what I mean!” That calm facade hadn’t taken long to crack, unbridled anger lighting up the face opposite her. Time to change tactics.

“The Ultor are trying to clone Commonwealth officers.” Rose stepped slowly into her command centre, weapon still at the ready. “You and your buddy were rejects from that project because you looked nothing like the real thing.” She dived behind the fried communications terminal as a warning shot zapped past her. The shot had missed but she’d hit a sore spot. “You stole or were given a small fleet of ships which you used to murder thousands of people to get my attention.” The next shot hit the console. Sparks rained down on the captain but she held onto her composure. “You then hid yourself amongst the fleeing civilians you’d traumatised so you could board my ship, kill an officer and then try to wrest command with a bullshit story that no one with half a brain would believe. How am I doing so far?”

She bolted upright at the sound of her attacker’s pistol recharging, with a quick twist she had her own weapon aimed squarely between those azure Graham eyes once more. The clone smirked, control returning. “Close enough.” Monologuing, slowly pacing to the far side of the room, towards the cover of the navigation terminal “The Ultor had a sample of your blood after they took back the colony world your people ransacked two years ago.” She’d almost lost an arm on that mission, Rose wouldn’t be surprised if the Ultor had enough of her blood to clone an army. “The Ultor wanted you to be the first captain replaced in their operation to turn the entire Commonwealth vanguard into their own fifth column.” Coming to a halt near the middle of the room as if lost in reminiscing, “Your people would be ashes, but the program was scrapped when I came out like” The clone made an agitated gesture at their face “this.”

Rose tracked those familiar eyes and saw the frustration and pain she knew all too well. The clone couldn’t stand the body they’d been burdened with, a failure in their own eyes for disappointing the Ultor through no fault other than being born imperfect. Despite all the death and destruction her heart ached for this tortured creature, but she needed to keep the would-be usurper off balance if she wanted to find out the entirety of the Ultor plan. “So you blame yourself for the program’s failure?”

Pain ripped through Rose as the laser blast grazed her shoulder. She heard her weapon clatter to the floor as she collapsed back behind her cover. “The cloning program worked perfectly, only your tainted blood stopped it! The Ultor gave me a small fleet to make you suffer in whatever way I could but once I kill you and crash this ship into the nearest Commonwealth station they’ll see the use in us again and the stars will drown in human blood!”

Had this rage once been hers? The pain, the anger, the confusion was all so familiar to her. “You’re not defective and neither am I.” How many people had she hurt in her own misery? “You hate your body because it came out male” She had to believe she wasn’t beyond redemption. “but mine did too.” Rose lifted herself back to her feet so she could look her clone in the eye. “I’m… we’re transgender and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Rose saw the beginnings of understanding in the clone’s expression, she had to push on if she wanted to end this without any more bloodshed. “The Ultor don’t have gender, they couldn’t have known what went wrong with you, they couldn’t give you the years of medical treatments and self-reflection.” Her doppelganger could have shot her any time, but Rose saw in those eyes the need for identity she’d once seen in her own. “All the records of who I was before were destroyed when I transitioned. Maybe five people left in the galaxy know who I used to be. The Ultor couldn’t even give you a name could they? They didn’t know, they couldn’t know.” She could see the yearning within the broken creature before her. “My old name is gone, it’s dead and buried, but we can give you a new name, you can make a new life for yourself, all you need to do is put down the gun. You can be more than what you were made to be, I promise.”

The clone was silent and thoughtful for a few seconds, but when Rose saw those bright blue eyes look up there was only hate within them. “The Ultor want you to hurt. Let’s see how much you hurt when your crew finds out who their captain really is.”

Time stretched out in front of Rose as she watched her clone reach for the PA controls. She realised now this manufactured monster was not some tragic reflection of her past self. Her enemies had made a spiteful mirror to mock everything she stood for. Whatever the inner workings of this creature she knew it was not really a sister to her. She was dimly aware of herself shouting out at the clone. Begging. The PA system sounded to life despite her pleading.

“Attention crew and passengers of the CSV Asima,” The discharge of a laser pistol cut the address short. A dark memory of what Rose had once been collapsed back on the command centre floor. The face that could have been hers was the smouldering ruin of a laser impact. The clone didn’t stir from that final resting place on the floor. Her past was buried once again.

Turning, Rose faced her first officer and lover. Meryl still held her pistol in front of her, lowering it as she made eye contact with the captain. No words came, but in those luminous purple eyes Rose saw all the support she needed to hear. Official records would state nothing of the attacker’s true nature, only that a refugee had impersonated an officer, incited a riot and been killed by the first officer after attacking the captain. When the Asima arrived in port at long last only a few of the tired and hungry passengers cared to comment, stating simply that the Captain got them to safety and that was all that mattered. The body of the clone was cremated along with the few others who did not survive the journey and shipped to Earth for burial. The one time imposter’s urn was left unnamed.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, an original work and setting, not barely disguised Mass Effect fanfiction.
> 
> If you enjoyed the story I would be interested to hear what you thought of the hero and villain, especially the usage of pronouns which was a big concern for me when writing this. Initially the villain had male pronouns throughout and their urn was marked with Rose's birth name, until a friend pointed out I was essentially misgendering the villain even after their death.


End file.
